haha, that's great. I'm also going to do a paintball vid to help promote my brother's online store, should be fun.

One thing I'm investing in however, is a jockstrap/cup. :P I used to play a lot myself, but this video hobby's pricey!

What mic set up did you use Dylan?

Bah, I used to play with a jockstrap when I started out in paintball. Now I just take the pain like a man... I drop to my knees and cry... :)
I've only taken two bad hits there in the last couple years anyway.

I think I used the Senneheiser MKE-300, but possibly just the stock XL1 mic, I can't remember.

I watched the short film Switch.

I liked the idea of letting the actors face expressions do the talking in many cases. I guess that's a Guy Richie/Snatch thing but you did it well.

While the picture was very video like there were many cool shoting angles and neat cuts that made it easy to look past that.

I wish I had been doing stuff like this in high school. :)

I just watched it.

Very enjoyable, someone has a nice eye for visuals, editing could have been tighter, and more varied some instances.

2 things though.

1. That was the WORST and i mean WORST english/northern london accent i have ever heard. Seriously consider if you can't get an actual english person to do it, or someone who can really do accents, then do your own spin next time, and maybe have a hardcore new yorker do it, with that slang to give it your own slant.

2. Check your audio levels while you are editing, it varied all over the place and i found myself going up and down with the volume all the time, watch out for that.

But good job.

Zac

Thanks for the compliments and criticisms all of ya, they're well appreciated.

About the accent: blargh, don't get me started. David was convinced he could pull a decent one so we let him, and kinda just went with it.

Funny story, when we got our score sheets from the student film festival, most of them were in the 8-10 range (out of 10) with positive comments. However, one sheet just said: "Accent doesn't work" with a score of 4.

At any rate, I'm well aware of the film's problems, having watched it roughly forty thousand times. In my opinion, the largest one would be my (severe lack of) acting skill, but hey, that's just me.

Re: Good, now make it better
 

it seems a bit amateurish, but that just makes it all the more worthwhile when it has a polished professional finish. Go back, reshoot, work on the sound, acting, visuals - the whole deal. And then do it again. And again. - you'll learn a great deal. trust me :)

Staying positve as an amateur film maker myself, I'd say rethink the effect you want to portray to the audience and reshoot. I can see how you went for the one shot long take effect but I think that with some subtle shot changes that went in closer and better framing, you subject and short overall could have much more dramatic impact.

The other thread can be found here. With that
I'm closing this thread.

Anyone going to this festival?
 

Hey Kids,

The second feature I D.O.P.'d, Brothers Assassin, will be showing at the Camp Rewind 2003!

For more Info go to:

Camp Rewind 2003

-Nori

Watch Boston Dv Short Film!
 

I wanted to invite you to watch my new DV short film CELL PHONES & ACTION FIGURES on www.ifilm.com.

Here's the link:
http://www.ifilm.com/filmdetail?ifilmid=2458986

A cell phone salesman writes a dirty book in an effort to buy an engagement ring for his girlfriend. His world is turned upside down when an eccentric action figure enthusiast steals his car with the books inside.

The film recently played at The New England Film & Video Festival and on The Independent Film Channel. Check out the story on me in IMAGINE NEWS MONTHLY:
http://imaginenews.com/Archive/2003/..._MITCHELL.html

Please let me know what you think.

-JOSH MITCHELL
http://wickidpissaboston.iuma.com

Lady X DVD
 

Just wondering if there will be a "Lady X Season 1"-DVD
containing all episodes in high quality after the release of the
final episode? Would be very grrreat!

our XL1 short was seen by 70,000 viewers...
 

Hi.

Our short thriller "Siamese Connecition" was screened on Canada's Movieola (specialty short film channel) and talking to the founder/owner of the channel, they got Nielsen rating numbers and he confirms about 70,000 viewers caught our film during its premiere at 9pm EST on May 9,2003.

Our film's gotten some good press and there is some talk of a local reviewer piecing together an article about new emerging Canadian filmmakers that we're supposed to be a part of...

for more info, visit us: www.kubatfilms.com

For those interested, we shot with "old" XL1 (NTSC) with regular zoom lens as well as with wide adaptor and Canon EOS adaptor (and lots of step down rings/adaptors!) on some shots. We shot 4:3 to preserve quality and did letterboxing via "pan-and-scan" type method in post, as well as a bullet-time like deinterlace in after-effects to give it a film-look.

I have buddies from film-school days who look at the film and would bet all their money it was shot on super 16mm.

great forum here!

sincerely,
M.K.

That's good to hear. Got any clips on your site? I couldn't find any.

rebuilding site - will be adding clips soon
 

thanks for your interest!

are you really a pilot?

saw your site - neat stuff.

No. Not a pilot :)

Mark, Congratulations!

I haven't seen the project but since you've mentioned the filmic look of your project would you care to discuss what FilmLook techniques you used?

Any chance of getting a clip or two up somewhere?

Mark, I'm in London, perhaps we can hook up some time, even if it's just to observe :)

my filmic recipe...
 

okay, I went to film school and used 16 mm a lot so I knew a thing or two about what I wanted to go for.

Best place to start is light like you're lighting for film. An understanding of film set lighting style is critical as some videographers don't appreciate there's a difference :)

to preserve quality, we shot full screen and then letterboxed in post - a letterbox look immediately suggests "film" to the casual audience goer.

the biggest step was deinterlacing the footage - it's been referred here before in these forums - do a search for "deinterlace blend" and you'll get an article from some L.A. film school which talks about how it was done in Premiere.

Okay, okay - I post the quote here:

"Deinterlace Blend
A variety of methods may be used in deinterlacing a video image in order to resolve the temporal differences between video fields and create a complete image. This method requires duplicating a video clip in a non-linear editor (I used Final Cut Pro) such that you have two of the same clip on top of each other. Using a deinterlace filter, apply the effect to the lower fields in one layer and to the upper fields in the other layer. Reduce the opacity of the top layer to 50%.
PROS: Simple technique. Deinterlace filter included with Final Cut Pro (not sure about other NLE's, but it's a standard effect).
CONS: You gotta render.
RENDER TIME: 26 mins., 42 secs. [Final Cut Pro 3]
EDIT BLENDS: No
JAGGIES: 5 - As smooth as 60i.
COMMENTS: A nice, smooth, simple effect. Similar to frame mode and the DVFilm utility, but with slightly more motion blur on the edges. Not quite as filmy looking as some of the other techniques, but darn close. Experimentation may yield varying results: For example, try deinterlacing the bottom clip while leaving the top clip alone, but changing its opacity to 30%. Resolution chart exhibited slight loss of perceptible resolution. Fine edges rendered smoothly."

I've now gotten to try magic bullet and find the deinterlace blend method works just as well - it actually renders faster than magic bullet does so in most cases I'd probably go that way outlined above. As the above recipe indicates, you layer your footage so you get a more saturated final clip that you might need to colour correct/adjust brightness & contrast on but it's still worth the effort.

Did I add grain? no. the dv footage is raw enough - plus the cinelook filters etc. are tell-tale signs the stuff was manipulated.

Everyone's been asking for clips for me to post - all I can say is I will certainly make them available soon but really the effect works best on ntsc monitor on DVD or on DV tape - I think the way computer monitors work somehow the effect is not as impressive.
I edit in Vegas video and when I edit the film-look footage on my computer monitor it's hardly apparent - but when I plug out through video card to tv monitor or through firewire to camcorder to tv for "live" editing on tv monitor, it looks so filmic...

I know magic bullet does this too - you have to have faith and actually watch it on tv to appreciate how well it works - the computer monitor doesn't do it justice.

One last but very critical point - the time slur thing has been fixed in DV to get it filmic with magic bullet, 24 p cams, etc. But the common complaint still is the big depth of field. I use After Effects to touch-up shots where I want to do cool depth of field stuff or rack focus - it's simple: duplicate your layers, keep them in perfect synch, animate a mask around actor in foreground, do a fast blur on "background" and voila, instant depth of field. There are pricey filters out there you can use but the nice thing about doing it manually is you have total control. It's not needed all the time either since a lot of shots in films even have big depth of field as a style (like Star Wars).

(Deep depth of field) ...don't forget Citizen Kane.

that would be very cool.

We're planning to put episodes 4 and 5 together on DVD, including footage we couldn't fit into the timeframe of the online version. I also plan to re-edit several scenes, and we will re-do the soundtrack as well, including original opening and closing music. With the DVD we can have subtitle selections (for both English-speaking and Chinese-speaking audiences) , goofs, bio's, production notes, and perhaps even other shorts...who knows? That is the next stage of our project, anyway.

Lin tao-ming,

I would speak to john, and see if you can release it on the dvd with all the rest of them. That would be very cool, i would def by one to support the cause.

Zac

Well, I would certainly like to be part of a general Lady X DVD project, if there is one. I guess it depends on how the rest of it goes. I for one am optimistic that we're going to see even more amazing stuff before it's over.

Just noticed none of us have responded to this...sorry about that.

Rest assured, all the EPs will be looking at whatever ways to enhance this project...including your suggestions. So keep 'em coming.

As for this one suggestion, there is a problem if you're talking about making it generally available to the public in the fact that it'll involve commerce, which means we'll either have to set up a business side, complete with contracts, attorneys, etc. Bottom line is...someone has to pay the taxes...do the accounting...do the reporting, etc. And unless we're looking at making a good amount of money...it really isn't worth it. At least not this time around.

If you're talking about making a DVD just for the participants...that's possible, I guess, as long as we don't include the opening theme, and as long as all music rights and releases for each production will allow that. That's no small task though. Keep in mind that we'd never get 27 episodes on one DVD.

That's not to say we shouldn't consider it... we just need to consider all angles.

John,

We could start a massive bootleg scheme, selling ladyx dvd's with a gram of cocaine in each.

This works because if they find the cocaine they won't even recall the illegally sold DVD.

heh

Zac

I guess you're referring to the recent finding about German currency? Pretty amazing, eh?

But you've definitely come up with a new angle...bootleg your own productions, then no taxes, no responsibility. I'd never even thought of that. I wonder if that really happens? Either way...great idea for a movie.

Anyone here from Brisbane/Gold Coast area in Queensland, Australia?
 

If so, you are welcome to join FILM CLUB (named as such to be a tongue-in-cheek reference to Fight Club), a group for Brisbane & Gold Coast filmmakers to network and work on projects together.

The forum is at http://film-club.cjb.net and we will soon have a website to showcase the work of our members.

When joining, please post a message introducing yourself. Thank you.

You forgot the first and second rules of Film Club.

"DON'T TALK ABOUT FILM CLUB" :)

Flooding and Tropical Storm footage
 

I am going to be out shooting all the flooding in my area, it gets really bad here. I expect we may have water in the house AGAIN!

The footage will be appearing as links to the media files on my weather page..
http://www.realnola.com/radar.html
Check the bottom links..

Hey, I'm the "Tyler Durden" so I can do it. ;)

Be careful man. Bill isn't going to be a Camille or Betsy (hold on you may get shoot one of those this year!) but there is still plenty of risk out there.

Watch out for blown sewer caps; if you step into one of those the last thing you'll be trying to do is keep your camera dry! Power lines may be hanging, don't hang with them. Wear waders; there are lots of diseases floating in the water (be up on your shots too). Take a shower after with lots of soap and water.

I can also tell you that during Camille several photographers at one of TV stations went out on shoots. One rode a motorcycle down one of the highways to get a story. He said he would not do that again. Another nearly got washed out of building but got some great shots of the water chasing him upstairs (one step at a time).

Later,

Ahh I have been through many..
 

Are you kidding lo.. I have launched my BOAT from my BACK YARD several times lol.. I have some great pictures of me in a canoe in my front yard with 3 foot of water:)

I know what you are saying though. Stay tuned, it will get interesting I think.. this is a really tiny storm, just a lot of rain - enough to flood us out..


PS: I am doing a production about motorcycle stunting right now, see this site..
www.onarollproductions.com

you might find it interesting.

(Edited for my BAD TYPOS lol)

Footage Posted
 

I put up a little clip to give you some idea of what this is like.. IMO it's another day of heavy rain and thunderstorms packing medium winds..Imagine what a real big storm is going to be like after looking at this. (left click on link then click save target as.).
http://www.realnola.com/radar.html
or directly (might not work this way with some browsers)
http://www.realnola.com/tsbill1.wmv

Interesting little TS.. I hope we don't get a big one this year but if we do I am going to be extensively covering it. The last BIG storm that directly hit New Orleans was when I was a baby. We are long overdue for the "fishbowl" effect.

GL-? at work on TLC at this link
 

Once at this site, click on TLC in the left hand tool bar and the picture should appear with the girl shooting with the GL-?

www.discovery.com

A short on triggerstreet.com
 

Hi folks,
I am currently a Dv wannabe- I've been waiting until next years tax refund to buy a GL2 (because my wife told me to wait, I do what my boss tells me). I've been enjoying some short films on triggerstreet.com and it got the best of me, I just had to send something in, so I grabbed my sony hi-8 and my two children and made something to send in. actually, most of it was made last year for my own entertainment, but I filmed the first few seconds of this video last week. (if you watch the video, the part after it says "one year later" was actually filmed one year earlier)
Anyway, it's not the best quality- the sound isn't so hot-it's kind of a rush job, but I encourage everyone to check it out.

It's called "Young love" and is in the comedy/romance sections.
feel free to post your opinions.

Thanks,
Adam

Yeah it's a GL-1 with a wide angle adapter. The regular show "Trading Spaces" (not the family edition) has host Paige Davis using a GL-1 as well. It's pretty corny though because when they show footage she shot they do an overlay that says "Paige Cam" and add the cheesy graphics to make it look like a home video camera...even including the "record" message and flashing red dot at the bottom of the screen.

*WHY do I know this, you may ask.....my gf forces me to watch the stupid show!*

See previous discussions of this topic at:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...&threadid=1896

and

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...&threadid=6471

and

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthrea...&threadid=6026

Hope this helps,

Making a documentary
 

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone on here has any experience in trying to get a documentary on the tv?
Who and how would you approach companies for finance?
It seems like you have to get the broadcasters interested first but how do you go about it?
Send a treatment? A full script? With a docu' this is a little tricky.
I'd love to just film on dv, edit it together and then see what the boadcasters think - except that a big part of it has to be filmed in LA - im in Cambridge.
It wouldnt need many people to get involved and the filming in LA would take just a week.
Production companies have said theyd be interested in filming it - but ofcourse they would, i would too! but they're interested once they're paid...

How does sponsership of a show work? For instance, the docu is about Soul music. KFC have started a new ad campaign with 'Soul Food' a big part of the new sell. Anyone know how I could approach the likes of KFC to fund it, making it beneficial to them?

Lady X in Istanbul...Episode 06!
 

Having retrieved the mini disc from Fagan in Taipei, Lady X bolts straight for the Bosphorous Strait to find out whether all that glitters is gold.

Go to http://www.ladyxfilms.com and click the "Current Episode" link.

The Lady X Crew

================
Episode 06 Details:

Directed by: Emin Firat Övür
Produced by: Mahmut Övür
Written by: E. Firat Övür,The Kirayoglu Bros.
Production Assistant: Julide Övür
Edited by: Ozgur Keskin, Savas Dogan

Cast: Zulal Neyzi (Lady X); Alpkan Kirayoglu (Agent 1); Emir Ahmet Agsu (Agent 2); Alphan Kirayoglu (The Antiquary)

Crew: E. Firat Övür (everything)

Music: Composed and performed by E. Firat Övür-Ceyhun Nursen, Firat Polat

27 episodes is aroun 3.15 hours which at full resolution will indeed
not fit on one DVD. We'd need at least two for that. And then
there is the matter of NTSC & PAL episodes... ehehehe. Getting
all the episodes in full resolution QuickTime on a DVD might be
possible (technically) though.